This invention relates to game playing services for gaming machines such as slot machines and video poker machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods of utilizing cashless instruments on gaming machines.
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of the gaming machine.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, including bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including key pads and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game.
As technology in the gaming industry progresses, the traditional method of dispensing coins or tokens as awards for winning game outcomes is being supplemented by ticket dispensers which print ticket vouchers that may be exchanged for cash or accepted as credit of indicia in other gaming machines for additional game play. An award ticket system, which allows award ticket vouchers to be dispensed and utilized by other gaming machines, increases the operational efficiency of maintaining a gaming machine and simplifies the player pay out process. An example of an award ticket system is the EZ pay ticket system by International Game Technology of Reno, Nev. Award ticket systems and systems using other cashless mediums are referred to as cashless systems.
Cashless systems, such as the EZ pay ticket system, provide advantages to both game players and casino operators. For example, many players find it more convenient to carry an award ticket than a large number of coins. For gaming machine operators cashless systems tend to reduce gaming machine operating costs. For example, the infrastructure needed to remove and count indicia of credit (e.g. coins, tokens, bills) from the gaming machine may be eliminated or minimized when it is replaced with a cashless system, which reduces the gaming machine operating costs. Further, coin dust, which is potentially damaging to the components of the gaming machine (e.g. electronic components) may be eliminated or minimized when coin acceptors are replaced with the cashless system.
Currently, cashless systems have become very popular and have been embraced by customers. For example, ticket vouchers that are generated upon cashout and redeemed for cash or gaming machine credits within a particular casino are well accepted by game players. However, the ticket vouchers are only redeemable at the casino or the local property where the ticket was generated. Thus, the customer is not allowed to take the ticket voucher generated at one casino property and redeem the ticket voucher at another casino property. The limited redemption capabilities of cashless systems, including ticket vouchers, may be undesirable to an entertainment corporation that owns multiple casino properties. The entertainment corporation may desire that their customers have the ability to take a ticket voucher generated in one property to any of the other properties owned by the entertainment corporation.
Also, multi-site cashless capabilities may be desirable for an area or region such as the Las Vegas strip where a customer could cash out in casino A where a ticket voucher is generated. The customer could then take this ticket down the Las Vegas strip and into casino B where it could be inserted into a gaming machine""s bill acceptor and redeemed for credit. In this example, casino A and casino B may or may not be owned by the same entertainment corporation. This type of multi-site validation capability is not possible with current cashless systems. Thus, in view of the above, it would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for cashless systems that allow a cashless medium, including an award ticket voucher, generated at one site using one type of cashless system to be validated at a second site using the same or a different cashless system.
This invention addresses the needs indicated above by providing a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse including a network interface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse to communicate with a number of gaming properties and a processor configured to enable the validation of cashless instruments at a gaming property different from where the cashless instrument was generated. Methods are provided at the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse and at the gaming properties that enable cashless instrument transactions across multiple gaming properties. In addition, methods are provided at the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse that allow 1) progressive games based upon cashless instrument transactions and 2) multi-site gaming promotions using cashless instruments.
One aspect of the present invention provides a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse for facilitating the use of cashless instruments across separate gaming properties, each of which generates and validates cashless instruments. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse may be generally characterized as including: 1) a network interface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse to communicate with each of the separate gaming properties; and 2) a processor configured or designed to (i) receive cashless instrument validation requests via the network interface from a first property for a cashless instrument presented at the first property where the cashless instrument was generated at a second property (ii) send information, via the network, to the second property requesting the second property to approve or reject the cashless instrument validation request. The cashless instrument may selected from the group consisting of a smart cart card, a debit card, a bar-coded ticket and an EZ pay ticket voucher. Further, the processor may communicate via the network interface with a first cashless system at a first property and a second cashless system at a second property where the second cashless system is different from the first cashless system.
In specific embodiments, the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse may include a transaction database containing cashless instrument transaction information, a router and a memory. The transaction database may be partitioned according to properties where access to a partition of the transaction database is limited to an owner of the property corresponding to the partition of the transaction database. The router may contain routing information allowing the processor to: 1) determine the property where the cashless instrument was generated and send information to the property where the cashless instrument was generated. The memory may contain software allowing the processor to: 1) operate multiple progressive games associated with cashless instrument transactions across separate gaming properties; 2) to operate multiple promotions associated with cashless instrument transactions across the separate gaming properties; and to graphically analyze the cashless instrument transaction information stored in a transaction database and generate accounting reports based upon the cashless instrument transaction information.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method of validating a cashless instrument at a first property using a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the cashless instrument was generated at a second property. The method may be characterized as including: 1) receiving a first transaction validation request containing transaction information from the first property wherein the first transaction validation request requests approval of a cashless instrument transaction; 2) sending a second transaction validation request to the second property; 3) receiving a first transaction validation reply from the second property; and 4) sending a second transaction validation reply to the first property wherein the second transaction validation reply contains transaction information indicating the cashless instrument transaction has been approved or has been rejected. The first transaction validation request may be an information packet. The transaction information may be selected from the group a value, an issue date, an issue time, a transaction number, a machine identification number, an issue location, an owner, a transaction approval and a transaction rejection.
In a specific embodiment, the method of validating a cashless instrument may include: 1) generating a sequence of one or more random numbers; 2) comparing the sequence of random numbers to a sequence of numbers contained within the transaction information; 3) when the sequence of random number matches the sequence of numbers contained within the transaction information, generating an award message indicating a prize has been awarded; and 4) sending the award message to the first property. In addition, the method of validating a cashless instrument may include: a) when the cashless instrument transaction is approved, charging an amount to property owner; b) when the cashless instrument transaction is approved, deducting a percentage of a value contained on the cashless instrument and storing the percentage of the value in a transaction database; c) when a cashless instrument transaction is approved, storing transaction information to a transaction database; d) generating a transaction validation reply; e) generating a transaction validation request; and f) determining the property where the cashless instrument was generated from the transaction information.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of validating a cashless instrument presented at a first property using a cashless server at the first property connected to a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the cashless instrument was generated at a second property. The method may be generally characterized as including: 1) sending a transaction validation request containing transaction information to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the transaction validation request requests approval of the cashless instrument transaction at the cashless transaction validation site; and 2) receiving a transaction validation reply from the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the transaction validation reply contains information indicating the cashless instrument transaction has been approved or has been rejected. Further, the method may include: a) receiving a first transaction validation request containing transaction information from a cashless instrument transaction validation site on the first property where the first transaction validation request requests approval of a cashless instrument transaction; and 2) sending a second transaction validation reply to the cashless instrument validation site where the second transaction validation reply contains information indicating the cashless instrument transaction has been approved or has been rejected. The cashless instrument validation site may be selected from the group consisting of a gaming machine, a cashier station, a wireless validation device and a clerk validation terminal.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method of validating a cashless instrument presented at a first property using a cashless server at a second property connected to a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the cashless instrument was generated at the second property is provided. The method may be characterized as including: 1) receiving a transaction validation request from the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the transaction validation request requests approval of the cashless instrument transaction at the cashless transaction validation site; and 2) sending a transaction validation reply containing transaction information to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the transaction validation reply contains transaction information indicating the cashless instrument transaction has been approved or has been rejected. The method may also include: a) sending an electronic find transfer to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse; b) receiving an acknowledgement message from the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse when the cashless instrument transaction is completed at the first property and; c) sending a non-acknowledgement message to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse when the cashless instrument transaction is rejected at the cashless server.